Murder suspect's mom says she was asked to take custody of kids

CLINTON, Ill. -- A woman accused of drowning her three children in a car submerged in a lake had asked her own mother to take custody of two of them just months before their deaths, the mother said Thursday.

Two hours after she watched her daughter cry as a judge read the first-degree murder charges she faces, Ann Danison said she couldn't help but wonder if she could have averted the tragedy.

"She was my only child. My only grandkids. I don't have any more," Danison said, her voice breaking. "And I'll never have them."

Danison said her daughter, Amanda Hamm, had asked her to care for her two sons so that she could move from Clinton to St. Louis with her boyfriend, who is also charged with the children's murders.

But Danison told her she could only take the oldest boy. The father of the youngest child also said Thursday he knew Hamm wanted to move to St. Louis.

"She didn't think she could take all the kids with her, but I never thought anything would happen," Shane Senters told WCIA-TV.

Six-year-old Christopher Hamm, 3-year-old Austin Brown and 23-month-old Kyleigh Hamm drowned Sept. 2 when the car they were in plunged off a boat ramp into Clinton Lake.

Hamm, 27, and Maurice Lagrone Jr., 28, appeared for the first time in court Thursday. Both are charged with nine counts of first-degree murder. They appeared separately; neither entered a plea.

Hamm cried and wiped her eyes as a judge read the charges against her and told her she could be eligible for the death penalty. Her knees shook in her jail-issued blue top and pants; Lagrone stood motionless with his hands behind his back.

Lagrone has not hired an attorney yet but has until Dec. 23 to notify the court who his lawyer will be, according to the state's attorney's office.

Hamm's court-appointed attorney said he is gathering information to mount the most effective defense possible.

"The massive amount of media coverage makes a fair and impartial trial in the current venue unlikely," said Steve Skelton of Bloomington. "I haven't made the determination on whether to move the venue. But it is certainly a possibility."

DeWitt County Judge Stephen H. Peters scheduled preliminary hearings in the case for Jan. 7, although prosecutors have indicated they will take the case to a grand jury next week. Indictments would negate the need for a preliminary hearing and allow prosecutors to remain tight-lipped about their evidence.

Peters kept the suspects' bonds at $5 million. Both remained in custody.

Authorities have refused to disclose a motive, although they say they have one and that it doesn't involve life-insurance money.

Danison spoke about her daughter during a 90-minute interview with The Associated Press while sitting at the kitchen table in her home, located two blocks from the county building where she has worked for 15 years. Currently, she is the office manager for the state's attorney, which has necessitated a special prosecutor to be brought in to handle the case.

Danison said she believes her daughter is guilty but was somehow "brainwashed" by Lagrone into believing she was doing the right thing.

When she saw her daughter in court, Danison said she "hurt for her."

"Amanda is not a violent person. What she did was wrong. I can't accept what happened," Danison said. "I hurt for her, but at the same time I was mad too."

Her grandsons called her "Naunie" -- a nickname she loved, Danison said.

Their mother was a wild teenager who dropped out of high school three months before graduation and had been treated for alcohol abuse, Danison said. But she seemed to calm down after she became a mother.

"Amanda's a very depressed person, low self-esteem, very insecure. But she'd laugh with the kids. She always had a great Christmas for them ... she'd plan for their birthdays," Danison said.

Danison said she didn't approve of her daughter's relationship with Lagrone because he couldn't hold a job and refused to care for the children, although he was good at playing with them.

Danison said she was also opposed to the couple's plans to move to St. Louis. Hamm had often talked of going there to pursue a career in the hotel industry, leaving Clinton, a town of about 7,500 people in central Illinois.

Craig Brown, Austin's father, said he was surprised when murder charges were announced Wednesday. Although he thought there was something wrong about the case -- Hamm and Lagrone were on the lakeshore when rescuers arrived -- he expected less serious charges.

Brown said his son was an energetic little boy with a vivid imagination. His last memory of Austin was of the boy sitting on his father's chest -- "laughing, giggling and making little jokes."